Rush's Morning Update: The Stakes
September 11, 2009

The great debate being waged across our country is not over health care reform. It is over our very form of government.

In the past, conservatives argued for limited government – while liberals passed big-government programs and policies that have become institutionalized in the fabric of our lives. Now, the stakes have been raised. The argument is no longer "limited government" versus "intrusive government." Liberals, epitomized by Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats, are advocating unlimited government.

The federal government has taken over America's mortgage industry – 90 percent of all home loans are under government control. Our largest automakers are under government control, as are large swaths of our financial sector. The entire free-market energy sector is waiting for the axe to fall – via "cap-and-trade" regulations, which will effectively nationalize them. Unaccountable, unelected government czars now set policy – in an executive branch that is unrestrained by Constitutional checks and balances. Intelligence officers who, under a previous administration, served our country in a time of national peril – are now subject to political trials, by an out-of-control Justice Department.

In his speech to the nation, Obama shamelessly used Ted Kennedy's memory to force unpopular, unworkable health care reforms down Americans' throats. He said, "What we face is above all a moral issue." It isn't just the details of policy at stake, he said, but "the character of our country."

No. What's at stake, Mr. Obama – is the survival of our country as we know it – and love it.